Take Cover makes all in sprint test to add another win to his CV

David Griffiths must have been jumping for joy when he saw that his lovable veteran sprinter Take Cover was awarded with stall two in the Beverley Bullet and after bouncing out and claiming the rail under Tom Queally, he stuck on pluckily to hold off a bunch of challengers in the final furlong to claim the prize.

The ten-year-old, who is owned by Norcroft Park Stud, has developed a reputation for his blistering speed from the gates as well as a game determination to see out his races over his extremely prosperous 38-race career, and both of those were in display here.

Griffiths said: "I'm chuffed to bits. It was good ground, the lads said it wasn't good to firm, and I thought the stiff five furlongs might find him out but he is so quick and he found again up the hill.

"I actually said this morning to Andrew Hollis of the owners that I didn't think we should run because of the rain overnight – so it's all down to him!"

"He hasn't got a Group 2 penalty this year and there are a lot of Listed races and Group 3s – there is one at Doncaster and another at Newbury and there is the race at Dundalk that he won in 2015. So there is plenty until the end of the year.

"He's been unbelievable for us, to keep coming back and winning like that. After York it was massive to get his confidence back so I'm delighted with him."

Sprint king Paul Midgley had three of ten runners in the field for the feature and his Final Venture was the closest to denying Take Cover, finishing a length behind after coming wide to challenge under Luke Morris.

The Wagon Wheel, who traded at the biggest in-running price of 999-1 on Betfair during the contest, flew home on the rail to get third for Richard Fahey and Cam Hardie.

Result and analysis